BJP MP Prahlad Joshi moves breach of privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Prahlad Joshi on Friday moved a breach of privilege motion against Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The BJP leader said Rahul Gandhi has made "unsubstantiated claims against the BJP, particularly against the Prime Minister on Rafale deal."

A notice by Joshi to the Lok Sabha read, "While participating in the discussion, he (Rahul Gandhi) made serious, baseless and wild allegations against the Govt. and particularly against the Prime Minister regarding Rafale Deal. He stated that the Rafale deal was signed during UPA regime but when PM went to France, the cost suddenly shot to Rs. 16 billion from Rs. 520 billion. He also stated that under pressure from Prime Minister, Nirmala Sithararnan told to lie to the nation. He further alleged that PM cheated his own army on dealing with China in Doklam issue."

Joshi further said that the Congress chief has alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending all the benefits to 10-20 big selected industrialists.
 

"He termed the Prime Minister a bhagidaar instead of a chaukidaar. He alleged that Minimum support price is also a jumla strike and Prime Minister never cares for the small shopkeepers but extends all the benefits to 10-20 big selected industrialists. He also alleged that Prime Minister has benefited a particular industrialist to the tune of Rs. 45,000/-," the letter read.

Joshi added, "Since, the statement was baseless, malicious and amounting to bring disrepute to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister, the statement made by Rahul Gandhi was misleading to the Members and the House. All these incidents amount to breach of privilege and I want to move a privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi."

Earlier in the day, Rahul raised the controversial Rafale deal in Parliament while accusing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of lying to the nation quoting the 'secrecy clause' in the pact.

"Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier said that she will tell the country about the cost. However, later she said it's a secrecy pact between both the countries (India and France). I asked the French President about this secrecy pact, but he denied the existence of any such pact. He even told me that he has no issues in making the cost public," Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the No-Confidence Motion.
 

"The Defence Minister has clearly lied under pressure from the PM. Everybody knows the relationship that Prime Minister Modi has with a few business people, and everyone can see the amount of money that goes into his marketing. One of them was given the Rafale contract. Prime Minister Modi has not been truthful and that is a fact," Rahul added.

During his speech, the Congress president also questioned, if "Rafale sold same 48 aircrafts to Egypt and Qatar in 2015 for Rs 13.198 billion per aircraft, then why did India pay Rs 16.707 billion per Rafale aircraft?"

Replying to the allegations Sitharaman said the Gandhi was misleading the House. She added that a Secrecy Agreement with France was signed in 2008 (under the Congress-led government) and the Rafale deal was also covered in it.

The NDA government had signed a deal with France based Dassault Aviation to purchase 36 Rafale jets, which is slated to be one of the world's biggest military procurements in recent history and could cost the Indian government  $15 billion.